azo dye

azo dye, any of a large class of synthetic organic dyes that contain nitrogen as the azo group ―N=N― as part of their molecular structures; more than half the commercial dyes belong to this class. Depending on other chemical features, these dyes fall into several categories defined by the fibres for which they have affinity or by the methods by which they are applied. The oldest methods for applying azo dyes to cotton involved successive...